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About Rachel’s Challenge

Rachel’s Challenge is an organization responsible for a series of empowerment programs and strategies that help students and adults prevent bullying and allay feelings of isolation and despair by creating a culture of kindness and compassion. The programs are based on the writings and life of seventeen-year-old Rachel Scott, the first student killed at Columbine High School in 1999. During her life, Rachel reached out to those who were different, picked on by others, or new at her school. Shortly before her death she wrote, “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.” Rachel’s Challenge was founded by Darrell Scott (Rachel’s father) and Sandy Scott (Rachel’s stepmother) when they realized how Rachel’s writings and drawings resonated with her friends and classmates.

Although Rachel was a typical teenager with ups and downs, she believed that she would someday change the world. The Scott family tells her story to inspire others toward kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. More than twenty million people have been touched by Rachel’s story. Each year, at least three million more are added to that number. In the last several years, Rachel’s Challenge has received hundreds of unsolicited emails from students stating that, after hearing Rachel’s story, they reached out for help as they were contemplating suicide. Some even say that Rachel saved their lives.

Rachel’s Challenge is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, nonreligious organization based in Littleton, Colorado. By turning the story of a tragic death at Columbine High School into a mission for change, Rachel’s Challenge makes a worldwide impact by helping create safer learning environments for students.